United States History Student Edition

transformation of farming were two other inventions: the mechanical reaper, which sped up the harvesting of wheat, and the thresher, which quickly separated the grain from the stalk. Each of these innovations reduced the labor required for farming. McCormick’s Reaper Cyrus McCormick was the genius behind the invention of the mechanical reaper. Before this invention, farmers had harvested grain with handheld cutting tools. McCormick’s new machine greatly increased the amount of a crop a farmer could harvest. Because farmers could harvest more wheat, they could plant more of it.

arrangements of short signals and long signals— dots and dashes—to represent the letters of the alphabet. The new form of communication spread rapidly. Telegraph companies formed, and workers put up telegraph lines across the country. By 1852, there were about 23,000 miles (37,015 km) of telegraph lines in the United States. The telegraph allowed information to be communicated in minutes rather than days. People could quickly learn about news and events from other areas of the United States. The telegraph also allowed businesses to become more efficient with production and the shipping of goods. 7 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING 1. Speculating How do you think the invention of the telegraph changed everyday life in the United States? 2. Identifying Cause and Effect How did canals and railways transform trade in the interior of the United States? Farming Innovations GUIDING QUESTION What changes made agriculture more profitable in the 1830s? In the early 1800s, few farmers were willing to settle in the treeless Great Plains west of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. Even areas of mixed forest and prairie west of Ohio and Kentucky seemed too difficult for farming. Settlers worried that their old plows could not break the prairie’s matted sod. They also worried that the soil would not be fertile enough to support fields of crops. Advancements in Agriculture Three inventions of the 1830s helped farmers overcome difficulties in farming the land. As a result, settlement expanded throughout wider areas of the Midwest. One of these inventions was the steel-tipped plow developed by John Deere in 1837. It allowed farmers to cut through the hard-packed prairie sod of the Great Plains. Knowing that they would be able to farm the land on the prairies helped people make the decision to move west. Equally important to the

BIOGRAPHY JOHN DEERE (1804–1886) John Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont. He trained as a blacksmith but found it difficult to make a living in his home state. So, in the 1830s, he traveled to the state of Illinois to make a fresh start.

In his work, Deere frequently had to repair farm equipment, and he learned that farmers were having a difficult time with their plows. The rough iron plows of that time had been designed for the light, sandy soil of New England. It was much harder to use them to plow the rich but sticky soil of the Midwest. Deere thought he could improve the equipment, and in 1837, he produced a polished steel-tipped plow that performed much better. It allowed farmers to cut through the hard-packed sod of the Great Plains. Within 10 years, Deere was selling 1,000 plows per year. He was quoted as saying, “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me.”

Speculating What was the benefit of Deere’s invention for farmers?

PHOTO: ©Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Heritage Image Partnership Ltd./Alamy Stock Photo; TEXT: Deere, John. Quoted in “Happy Birthday, John Deere!” by Megan Gambino. Smithsonian Magazine, February 7, 2011, www.smithsonianmag.com.

Life in the North and the South 365